[1] The Imperial Gazetteer of India, compiled over a century ago during British rule, described the tehsil as follows:[2] "Pindi Gheb Tahsīl.-Tahsīl of Attock District, Punjab.

The tahsīl is mainly a bleak, dry, undulating and often stony tract, broken by ravines, and -sloping from east to west: a country of rough scenery, sparse population, and scanty rainfall.

Only near Pindi Gheb town does the broad bed of the Sil river show a bright oasis of cultivation among the dreary uplands which compose the rest of the tahsīl.

A solid Awan tract intervenes between the Johdras and the Pathans and runs from the south to the north of the tehsil.

These four tribes own practically the whole of the Pindigheb Tehsil, and their present boundaries are the result violent fighting during the break-up of the Mughal and Sikh rules.